Newzoo: Most established live-service and evergreen titles were flat or down year over year in H1 2026

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Newzoo’s latest Global Games Market Report paints a mixed picture for live-service and evergreen games in the first half of 2026. Most established titles were flat or declined year over year, while growth was concentrated in a few standouts such as World of Warcraft, Diablo 4, Overwatch, Roblox, and select Tencent releases.

That matters because it suggests the usual “always-on” revenue base is getting harder to grow without a breakout hit or a major platform tailwind. Newzoo says digital revenues fell year on year across six Western markets, with free-to-play and annualized premium weakness outweighing strong new releases. For teams building live ops, the takeaway is that retention alone may not be enough; monetization and content cadence are under more pressure than they were a few years ago.

The firm is still bullish on the broader market. It forecasts console player growth at 3% in 2026, up from 0.5% in 2025, driven by GTA 6 and renewed momentum from PlayStation, plus first-party Nintendo Switch 2 releases expanding the generation 9 install base. Newzoo’s director of market intelligence, Emmanuel “Manu” Rosier, has also said console revenues would stay flat without GTA 6.

On the business side, Newzoo says the top 10 public game companies generated $37.4 billion in Q1 2026 revenue, up 6.7% year over year. Tencent led at $10.8 billion, while Sony and Microsoft posted declines. Roblox was a notable outlier, up 39.3% to $1.4 billion and landing tenth in the ranking.